Modern Canadian Homes Showcase Clever Entryways

Formerly, I’ve discussed different ways of creating a feeling of entrance in contemporary designs, through entrance canopies and elevated walkways. This time I’ll look at more ways of defining entrances in contemporary homes. Instead of sharing formal traits, though, the following examples are combined in their geography — all have been at Ontario, Canada (and the photographs come from a couple of Canadian photographers having sharp eyes).

Generally speaking, I am intrigued by the homes. They are restrained in their use of glass, and it’s well positioned to increase sunlight. Their regional modernism displays a warm and embracing equilibrium of solid and void, brick (or steel or wood) and glass, but I am especially drawn to their front doors. Each house has a unique entrance that can teach us a little something about making the act of coming home unique.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

This three-story house in Toronto, by nkArchitects, benefit from its own corner lot through big windows overlooking the streets. Front door is incorporated into the first floor’s horizontal expanse of glass; a cutout on the brief side indicates the front door.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

Wood slats underline the entrance from the long side while providing some privacy.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

Front door is shining into the rectangular block of their brick house, sheltering visitors and residents before they go indoors. The location of the easy house numbering additionally makes the entrance clear.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

The house has a detached garage, meaning that the residents likely use the back door more frequently than the front (a rather common suburban condition). The architects transported through different motifs in the front of the house: timber slats, a concrete wall and steps, a simple steel railing.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

This house, also located in Toronto and designed by nKArchitects, has an interesting mix of traditional and contemporary going on. A gable roof that runs parallel to the road is notched out to the upper floor, revealing windows above a brick foundation that has a significant cutout for the entrance and garage.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

Within the wood-lined cutout is a black box that projects over the garage (the horizontal windows make the room behind it look as a lookout). The garage and entrance walk are at precisely the exact same level, however a partial-height wall divides the two zones.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

The concrete steps, incorporated with all the wall separating them in the driveway and planter beds, reminds me of Carlos Scarpa’s Olivetti Showroom in Venice, one of the most beautiful modern stairs ever.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

This ski chalet in Ontario, designed by AKB, makes it somewhat tricky to locate the front door. Can it be up the stairs on the leftside? This was my initial guess, assuming the top floor is the main living area and the lower floor is where the bedrooms are located. That assumption about stacking is accurate, but the entrance location is incorrect.

Peter A. Sellar – Architectural Photographer

Front door actually sits beneath the vertical wood slats on the lower floor. Half of the wall is strong and half is porous; the latter defines one side of the entrance steps. Per the plans on this building review, after skiers ascend the stairs and enter the front door, another set of stairs after a right turn provides them the choice of heading up to the open-plan top floor.

Andrew Snow Photography

This streamlined contemporary house, designed by Taylor Smyth Architects, has an extremely strong awareness of entrance in the golden-tone wood on the first floor, which appears even stronger awash in lights at the day. The horizontal wood panels (timber fiber resin panels, per some remarks on ) seamlessly run to both the garage and front doors. The lanky double columns based on the front facade are a wonderful touch.

Andrew Snow Photography

The full-height sidelight together with the front door allows residents to find out who’s knocking. This allows to get a strong front door in keeping with the remaining first floor.

Andrew Snow Photography

This Toronto laneway house designed by Setless Studio has a nearly invisible front door. Is it on the remaining bushes? Can it be off this street? If so, where? The glass provides a clue, even if the Corten steel panels do not.

Andrew Snow Photography

Beneath the tall window sits the front door, which fits the remainder of the wall but is slightly wider than the panels.

Andrew Snow Photography

Yet another way of accessibility does lie behind the bushes, set back in the road. This is the entrance that the residents probably use, a more spacious and inviting way of coming home.

Andrew Snow Photography

This last instance is a conversion of a 19th-century rooming house into flats in Toronto, designed by Creative Union Network. The new pieces do not stand in opposition to the old, but work with it in interesting ways. The entry becomes a portal site through projecting steel plates lining the recessed opening; the wood-slat steps float above rocks; and a minimum railing is the last piece in this very simple entry palette.

Andrew Snow Photography

I adore the way the speech, 113 Wolseley Street, is cut into the rusty steel (note the Creative Union cutout at bottom). This sort of attention to detail will help to make the entrance special.